


like a cloud of starlings

by saturnblue



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Retail, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Summer Jobs, bullshit ensues, ish, the teen rating is for swearing, they work in a supermarket café
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 18:49:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15955337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturnblue/pseuds/saturnblue
Summary: jeno only applied for the summer job in this damn supermarket café because his best friend jaemin made him. he didn't want to admit to himself that maybe, just maybe, his coworkers made it fun.and there's one of his them in particular, a snarky boy with dyed blond hair and a heart-stopping smile, who almost made every minute in that greasy café worth it.





	like a cloud of starlings

**Author's Note:**

> so uh this may or may not be my first fic. hopefully its alright hehe
> 
> later details n events will be inspired by true stories from my friend who works in a supermarket café. they get up to a lot of nonsense. enjoy!
> 
> also i'm english so this is set in england. i might accidentally include some minor british slang so prepare yourself for that. and a lot of tea drinking because yes we really do that at any opportunity

As Jeno pressed the buzzer to the supermarket staff entrance, all he could think about was how he’d rather be anywhere but here. He’d only applied for this damn job because Jaemin had pressured him into it, worried that he’d have to survive uni on a balanced diet of Aldi value pot noodles. Jeno had only begrudgingly agreed after days and days of pestering and perhaps a little bribing from his friend. Working in a supermarket café wasn’t exactly his dream job.

Jaemin’s concerns weren’t entirely unfounded. When they’d applied for student finance, Jeno had checked his bank account and wallet to discover he had £11.42, a ripped tenner and some assorted grimy copper change to his name. Jaemin, horrified, had forced him to send in his CV. “ _Tough love”_ , he’d called it. “ _I just want you to save enough to make it through fresher’s week without starving to death. Isn’t that what best friends are for?”_

So here he was, 7:42am, dressed up an itchy and uncomfortable uniform in a dodgy shade of purple that made him look a little like a plum. Who the hell would pair orange and purple for a uniform? Who thought that would look remotely okay? Running his hand impatiently through his sandy brown hair, he pressed the buzzer again, more insistently this time.

He hated to admit it to himself but he was actually a little nervous. What if he got fired on his first day? Jaemin would never let him live it down. His friend had worked as a waiter in a pub down his road for almost a year now. As he’d proudly told him, he’d been employee of the months for three straight months. His blinding smile and perfect manners had endeared him to even the grumpiest customers, even if he’d gone straight to Jeno to bitch about them the moment his shift ended. Jeno wasn’t quite sure he could live up to his stellar example. But then again, maybe no-one could.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening creakily. Standing on the other side of the doorway, peering at him, was a tall guy with messy dark hair who somehow, unbelievably, looked like he wanted to die even more than Jeno did. He offered his hand for a half-hearted handshake.

“You’re Jeno, right?” Jeno nodded in response. “I’m Johnny. I’m the café manager. It’s up here.” Johnny smirked. “You’ll grow to hate these steep ass stairs, kid. Sorry about that.”

Johnny turned and started up the steep ass stairs in question two at a time, and Jeno struggled to keep up, his legs still as half-asleep as his brain. “Guess I’ll have to show you how this place works.” Johnny started. “In any other place I’d expect it would be your other colleagues, but some of them are a bit…” He paused, clearly thinking about how best to phrase this. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to meet them. You’ll get what I mean.”

This unnerved Jeno more than a little. It was enough to be starting a new job at ass o’clock in the morning when he’d much rather be sleeping in and actually enjoying his summer holiday. He wasn’t sure if he could deal with apparently hostile colleagues at the same time.

They’d reached the top of the stairs, and Johnny led him down a narrow winding corridor that smelt faintly of mildew and more strongly of chips. He noticed that the paint was peeling off the walls a little. The realisation wasn’t particularly comforting.

Johnny gestured to a room they were passing on their left. “That’s the staffroom. You can hang out there in your breaks. There’s teabags if you’re lucky, and biscuits if Donghyuck hasn’t eaten them all.” Peering through a window in the door, he could see battered leather sofas strewn around and a kitchenette area with every inch of surface covered in dirty mugs. Two guys were in there, each sprawled out over a sofa and looking semi-comatose. Johnny shoved open the door. One jumped up in surprise as it banged loudly against the wall, but the other didn’t move an inch, only raising his middle finger in greeting.

“Donghyuck, that’s no way to welcome your new colleague,” Johnny reprimanded, not sounding remotely angry.

“Good morning to you too,” the boy – Donghyuck – replied, sitting up and smiling fake-sweetly from under a mop of honey blond hair with a myriad of coloured streaks. He noticed Jeno stood in the doorway and peered at him with interest. “So that’s the new guy? You Jeno?"

Jeno nodded and waved a little awkwardly. “Yeah. Nice to meet you… Donghyuck, right?”

“Yep, that’s me.” Donghyuck’s grin widened. “Your first day, huh. Reckon I’m gonna have fun with you.”

Before Jeno had time to wonder what the hell that meant, the other boy stood up, groaning, and staggered groggily over. “Right, new kid, I’m gonna give you one bit of advice so you can survive working in this place,” he said, offering him a friendly half-smile as he sat on the arm of Donghyuck’s sofa. “Whatever you do, don’t listen to Donghyuck. He’s an idiot. Don’t trust him with anything.”

“Hey!” Donghyuck leaned forward and cuffed him around the back of the head. “That’s mean. Shut up. I could say the same for you. You don’t even work up here, you slacker-“

“Slacker! Says you! Every time I come up you’re just sat on the sofa eating Jaffa Cakes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you working.”

Indignant, Donghyuck opened his mouth to come up with a snarky response, but Johnny cut him off. “Hey! Stop bickering. You’ll scare off the new guy.” He pointed an accusatory finger at the boy on the arm of the sofa. “You know you’re meant to be downstairs. Skedaddle, kid, or I’ll have Yuta on my back again.”

“Sorry, cap. I’ll head off.” The boy gave Johnny a mock salute as he headed between them, Jeno moving out of the way to let him through. “I’m Mark, by the way!” he added as he disappeared around the corner.

A little bemused, Jeno turned back to Donghyuck, who had grabbed a mug adorned with Thomas the Tank Engine and was finishing off its contents. He watched him grimace a little. “God, I don’t know why I let Mark make me tea. He always puts so much sugar in. It’s fucking terrible.”

Jeno grinned at him. “Thank God, someone who gets me. My friend Jaemin always used to make it too sweet until I threatened to throw the next cup over him.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widened a little. “Wait. Jaemin? This might be a weird question but like, Jaemin Na? Pink hair, about your height?” Surprised, Jeno just nodded, and Donghyuck laughed. “Hey, he’s my cousin. We terrorise our poor family every gathering. I think our great-aunts properly hate us.”

“Oh, Jaemin never told me that.” Jeno made a mental note to ask his friend about the strange, chatty boy with the colourful hair, who had just stood up to walk towards them.

“To be honest, I don’t see him all that often. He probably didn’t know I work here. You’ll have to get him to come visit us,” Donghyuck replied as he walked past Jeno into the corridor, patting him on the shoulder. He turned to Johnny. “I’m gonna go sort out the cakes and stuff. Or do I have to give smiley kid the tour? Teach him how to make a drinkable coffee?”

“No way would I trust you with that,” Johnny laughed. “You never even bothered to learn how to use the coffee machine properly. You just give everyone an Americano no matter what they ask for."

“And it’s a shit coffee machine. They all taste the same. I just put a bit more milk in for a latte or a cappuccino, and nobody’s noticed the difference yet,” Donghyuck said, smirking. “I’d better go set a good example for our newbie. See you in a bit, Jeno.”

“That’s probably the only time you’re ever gonna see him doing any work. Savour this moment,” Johnny commented, watching Donghyuck disappear around the corner.

Jeno laughed. “They sure are characters.”

“They sure are. Wait until you meet Renjun. Him and Donghyuck together are a force to be reckoned with.”

 

***

 

Johnny headed down the corridor and Jeno followed him round another bend until they reached a heavy metal door. Johnny pulled it open and held it for Jeno, who stepped through then stopped dead in his tracks. 

The sight before him was odd to say the least. A blond-haired boy lay flat on his front on the floor in the middle of the kitchen. His arm was reached out under a heavy-duty metal fridge but he was motionless, gazing sadly underneath it. He was surrounded by potatoes. The boy turned his head to look at him, and they held eye contact for an odd few seconds before Jeno spoke.

“Are you dead?” He couldn’t really think of anything else to say.

“Nope. I lost my potatoes, though." 

If anything, that was an even more puzzling answer to his question. He just stared down at him in slightly stunned silence.

“Jeno, Renjun. Renjun, Jeno.” Johnny’s voice startled him out of his slight stupor. “Make friends. I’m gonna go find Chenle. I’ll be back in a second. Renjun, leave the potatoes. You know, it’s generally frowned upon to serve things that have been on the floor.”

Renjun pouted a little, his face smushed against the floor. “Five minute rule.”

“Five _second_ rule. Not that I really care, but I don’t really want Taeyong going on at me about ‘health and safety’ and ‘germs’ and that kind of shit.” He made air quotes as he said this, and Jeno looked up at him, momentarily considering reminding him that germs did, in fact, exist, before deciding it probably wouldn’t be worth the debate.

Johnny headed off around the corner to another part of the kitchen, leaving him and Renjun on their own.

Jeno just looked down at Renjun. “You gonna move, then?”

“Nope.”

Jeno sat down by Renjun’s head. “C’mon. It’s my first day. You can’t just leave me to work stuff out by myself. The hell are you even doing down there?" 

“Are you blind? I was trying to reach the potatoes. My arms are kinda short though. I gave up and now I’m thinking about my failures.”

Dumbfounded, Jeno stared at him for another couple seconds, before gathering the potatoes around him into a basket. “Just leave them. I’ll gather these ones up.”

Renjun rolled over onto his back and looked up at him. “Damn. You’ve been here thirty seconds and I already couldn’t live without you,” he said. Sarcasm dripped off his tongue.

Jeno snorted. “Shut up. Sit up and help me.”

The blond boy complied, crossing his legs and half-heartedly chucking a couple of the potatoes into the basket. Jeno at him properly and stopped still for just a second.

He marvelled briefly at how anyone could manage to look good wearing this uniform.

Renjun looked up too and met his eyes. Embarrassed, Jeno looked quickly away, busying himself gathering up the last of the potatoes. “I wasn’t really expecting to walk in on my first day and see someone paralytic on the floor,” he said, breaking the silence.

“Get used to it. This place is kinda weird. Especially since you’ll be working with people like Donghyuck and Johnny." 

“You’re kinda weird too.”

“Thanks.” Renjun flashed a grin at him, seeming genuinely pleased at the comment. His eyes crinkled as he did and a slight dimple appeared on his right cheek. Jeno’s stomach felt a little odd, just for a second. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

 

***

 

After they’d stood up, Jeno had tried to go and throw away the potatoes, but Renjun had stopped him, grabbing the basket and putting it in a cupboard. ( _For a rainy day,_ he’d said, and refused to elaborate. Jeno had pretty much accepted permanent mild confusion at this point.) Johnny had returned with a green-haired boy in tow who enthusiastically introduced himself as Chenle and seemed far too happy for not even 8am on a Monday morning.

The café didn’t open for the best part of another hour, so Johnny and Chenle took him out to the front counter to show him the ropes, leaving Renjun to busy himself in the kitchen. Donghyuck was out there arranging cakes in a display case and grumbling to himself as 80s synth pop blasted from his headphones. His earlier peppiness he’d shown in the staffroom seemed to be gone, replaced by a deep and unshakeable grumpiness. Jeno wondered if it had just been Mark’s presence disguising the fact that he wasn’t a morning person.

He was shown how to use the coffee machine; it was covered in strange marks and stains and seemed to require more luck than skill to operate. “Donghyuck figured out a way to do it that works maybe 70% of the time,” Chenle remarked cheerfully. “He told me to pray to an eldritch god, punch it on the side three times then spit in the coffee beans. I usually skip the first and last steps, but the second one works pretty well!”

Chatting to him and Johnny, Jeno learned a bit more about his rather strange colleagues than he ever really cared to know. Johnny had been working there for ‘too long’, liked watching anime in his office and dreamed of running away to the circus. Chenle was younger than Jeno and had only been working for a month, but seemed to be single-handedly keeping the entire place running.

Donghyuck and Renjun, on the other hand, were Jeno’s age, also in their last summer before they started university. They were both known for messing around at every opportunity yet still managing to find the sweet spot of doing enough work to not lose their jobs. In a hushed whisper, Chenle had mentioned something known only as The Salamander Incident which had nearly got them fired a couple of months back.

Johnny only replied to Jeno’s enquiries on the incident with “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” He gave up on asking soon after that.

Other people they’d mentioned included Mark, who worked stocking shelves downstairs on the supermarket floor, but seemed to spend more time upstairs on the sofa chatting to Donghyuck. He was apparently the bane of the store manager Yuta’s life. He only managed to keep his job through a remarkable talent for sweet-talking and a charming smile.

The overall manager of the supermarket, Taeyong, seemed to be more of a fabled presence than an actual person. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in real life,” Donghyuck added, turning away from the shelf of juice and soft drinks he was stacking to join their conversation. “I’m not even convinced he exists.” According to Johnny, he had a remarkable talent for signing off every single email with exactly the wrong emoji for that situation. This landed him in a lot of strange arguments that it somehow fell back to Johnny to fix. As a thank you, Taeyong sent him regular anime recommendations. 

As they’d chatted, they’d headed back into the kitchens, and Renjun had joined them. They were in the middle of showing Jeno the microwaves when they heard the door bang open, and a tall, flustered-looking boy ran into the room, his faded orange hair dishevelled and a little windswept. “I’m sorry, Johnny! God, I’m so sorry I’m late, I slept in, I didn’t mean to, my alarm didn’t go off, I’m so sorry-”

“Hey, hey, calm down, Jisung. I’m not gonna fire you. You’re earlier than Donghyuck usually is.” Johnny’s words seemed to calm the boy a little. He looked away from his boss, and spotted Jeno.

 “Oh! Are you the new guy?”

“Yeah, I’m Jeno. Just started this morning. Good to meet you,” Jeno replied, smiling encouragingly up at him. “Jisung, right?”

Jisung nodded in reply and wrung his hands, looking like he didn’t quite know what to do with them. “Yeah. I, uh. I do the dishes.”

Chenle walked over to him, giggling, and put a hand on his back, steering him towards the sink. “Yeah, and you gotta do them now. There’s a bunch we managed to miss yesterday and you need to get started before we open up the café. Here, I’ll help you.” Jisung turned to look at Jeno, flashing him a slightly awkward smile, then turned back to Chenle beside him, looking a little starstruck. 

After Jisung’s arrival they set about opening the café for 9am. Not quite trusting Jeno to run the kitchen yet, they put him behind the counter with Renjun, with Renjun mainly taking orders and Jeno on the coffee machine. 

They made a good team. Renjun made constant snarky comments about the ruder customers, making Jeno laugh, trying to stifle it until his stomach hurt. He failed at hiding it when the coffee machine, ever temperamental, managed to spit tepid sludge all over an unfortunate Renjun, and the two of them broke down into slightly hysterical giggles. This drew the attention of Donghyuck who poked his head round the corner. He instantly burst out into a loud cackle as well, turning the heads of the customers, but the three of them didn’t really care. Somehow, unexpectedly, Jeno was almost having fun.

 

***

 

A few hours later, he finally got to take a break, his at the same time as Donghyuck’s. The two of them headed for the staff room in step.

“Working mornings is terrible. We end up frying so much bacon that my hair stinks of it for hours. Look!” Donghyuck ran his hand through his hair and showed his fingers to Jeno; they’d come back greasy. “I literally washed my hair this morning. Its grimy.”

“That’s grim.” Jeno wrinkled his nose, running his hand through his own hair to find spots of coffee-smelling tar. How the hell it had got in his hair was anyone’s guess. He made a mental note to tell Renjun about it. He’d find it funny.

They’d reached the staffroom by that point, and opened the door to another unexpected sight. Jeno was once again stopped in his tracks at the sight of a pink haired boy perfectly at home on the sofa, turning around to grin at them.

“Jaemin?”

“Morning, sunshine.” Jaemin beckoned for him to come over and sit down next to him, and as Jeno moved from the doorway Jaemin noticed the boy standing behind him. “Hey, Donghyuck? Mate, I had no clue you worked here!”

“Hey, dude!” Donghyuck’s grin was just as wide as he walked over and grabbed Jaemin’s hand in greeting. “Shoulda told me you were sending your friend into the hellpit. I would’ve prepared a welcome party.”

“You mean, you would’ve prepared some horrifically elaborate prank that would’ve scared him away forever."

“You know me so well.” Donghyuck grabbed a Diet Coke he’d clearly left in the fridge this morning (Jeno noticed a label proclaiming _DONGHYUCK’S – TOUCH THIS AND YOU DIE AN AGONISING DEATH_ accompanied by some hearts in decoration) and settled himself on the sofa opposite them. Jaemin, cuddly as ever, rested his head on Jeno’s shoulder.

“Jaemin, how the hell did you even get in here?” Jeno wondered out loud, and he felt Jaemin giggle.

“Long story short, managed to charm the security guy. He’ll bow to my every word now. Might have bribed him with a bit of cash too.”

Jaemin seemed to have a limitless supply of money. Jeno didn’t really want to ask where he got it from. He suspected fraud.

The three of them chatted away for a little bit, Jaemin and Donghyuck ending up in hysterics after recounting an incident from when they were younger where they’d stolen their great aunt’s spare dentures and somehow, without anyone noticing, had tied them to the ceiling fan and balanced them on top. When the fan was inevitably turned on the dentures flew in a wide orbit around the room. “They hit our great-aunt smack bang in the middle of the forehead,” Donghyuck choked out, tears in his eyes. “God, her face was priceless. We were grounded but it was worth every second.”

They were interrupted by Mark, who appeared in the doorway and made a beeline for Donghyuck. He sat down next to him onto the sofa and Donghyuck instantly rested his legs across his lap.

“Not dead yet, Jeno?” Mark asked, seeming totally unfazed and reaching his hand over to absent-mindedly play with Donghyuck’s hair.

“Not quite. That coffee machine’s gonna kill me one day, though. I think it’s cursed.”

“Oh, it’s definitely cursed,” Donghyuck piped up. “I heard screams from it one night when I was closing up. You have to appease the spirits before you use it, otherwise it attacks.”

“I tried that. I tried the advice you told Chenle, but all I ended up with was bruised knuckles. And all the coffee looked like tar anyway. Kinda smelt like it, too”

The moment Jeno mentioned the bruises, Jaemin grabbed his hand and cooed over it. “Hey, that looks kinda bad. You should be careful.”

Mark grinned. “Like I said. You shouldn’t’ve listened to Donghyuck. There’s no way to use that coffee machine without risking your own life. One time it managed to catapult an espresso mug at me and hit me in the face. I had a bruise for weeks.”

“It looked gross. It got all swollen. You kinda looked like an egg.”

“Shut up! Did not.” Mark shoved Donghyuck playfully, who responded by shoving him back harder. 

“Mark, how come you were even behind the counter?” Jeno asked, curiously. “Don’t you work downstairs?”

“Visiting Donghyuck.” Donghyuck gave a satisfied smirk as Mark slung his arm round the other boy’s shoulders.

“He spends more time here than downstairs. We don’t let him work any of the appliances though. He has a knack for setting things on fire.”

“That was _once._ ” Mark pouted indignantly.

“Still. I’m never letting you near the dishwasher again.”

“What? How the fuck did you set a dishwasher on fire? Its full of water!” Jaemin squinted incredulously at the pair.

“Like I told you. He has a knack for it.”

The four of them chatted easily back and forth for a while until Johnny poked his head round the door and told them all they’d better get back to work before Renjun murdered them all in their sleep for leaving him to run the counter alone. He didn’t even seem to notice Jaemin’s presence, or if he did he didn’t give a shit. Jeno didn’t blame him.

 

***

 

The rest of the day passed without too much incident. Renjun and Jeno stayed on the counter, managing to keep the flow of customers under control. At one point, when it was a little quieter, Jeno went over to Renjun, unable to keep his curiosity under control.

“Dude, are Mark and Donghyuck dating or not? They seem so flirty.”

“Literally none of us have any clue. They’ve always been like this.” Renjun’s answer hadn’t quite been what Jeno was expecting. 

“You’ve got no clue? They’re all over each other!”

“Well, yeah. But they’ve never actually talked about it to anyone.”

“There’s kinda an obvious solution to that. Why don’t you just ask them?”

“Cause me and Johnny have a bet on. If they announce they’re dating in the next month, he has to give me twenty quid.” Renjun’s smile turned mischievous. “Promise me you won’t ask them. I don’t wanna ruin this bet. I think I’m gonna win it.”

Jeno just raised his eyebrows. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You guys are weird." 

“Only the best of us are.”

He almost missed it, but as he said this Renjun winked at him. Honest-to-God winked at him. As the smaller boy headed back to the till to talk to a customer who’d just arrived, Jeno was left a little dumbfounded. He stared at the back of Renjun’s head for just a second too long before turning quickly back to that hellish coffee machine.

 

***

 

Jeno threw himself into his car and slammed the door, sheltering from the driving rain. It didn’t often rain in late June so, dumb as he was, he managed to forget an umbrella. He leant his head back onto the headrest and sighed deeply, shutting his eyes for a moment.

It was only his first day but he was somehow shattered. He’d even left early at 4:30, not even needing to close up that day. (“We’ll spare you the horror,” Johnny had said. “Get the hell out of here. Run while you still can,” Donghyuck had supplied.) He was glad of it, though work wasn’t as bad as he’d expected it to be.

Who knew work could be this tiring? He literally just stood at the coffee machine all day, passing coffees and teas to Renjun, chatting with Renjun. He’d enjoyed it though, for some strange reason. He liked Renjun. He liked his snarky sense of humour, the way his eyes lit up when he laughed, his smile. Most of all his smile. Jeno found thoughts of him and his other colleagues floating loosely through his mind as he sank further into the seat. He’d just sit there for a second, he thought. Just a second.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

The hell was that?

Groggily, Jeno opened his eyes, trying to get his bearings. His car. The hypnotic sound of rain drumming on the metal roof. And a face at his window.

Shit. It was dark. When did it get dark?

Eyes a little unfocused, he turned to the disembodied-looking face at the window, and realised with a jolt that, illuminated in the unnatural orange lights of the car park, it was Renjun. The boy looked bedraggled, soaking from the rain. He’d changed out of his uniform into a plain blue hoodie and black jeans. Jeno rolled down the window and flinched at the spray of water in his eyes.

“You look a bit damp.”

“No shit. Can I get in?”

“Sure, go for it.” What else was he meant to say?

Renjun hurried around the front of the car and opened up the passenger door, collapsing onto the seat and slamming the door shut. “Cheers. You got any food?" 

“Uh. Did I offer you any?”

Renjun didn’t answer. He was already rooting through Jeno’s glovebox in search of snacks. Jeno just watched him, amused.

“I don’t have any. You look hungry, though.”

Renjun looked up at him and nodded. “I guess I could’ve eaten leftover chips while I closed, but they’re kinda greasy. I had lunch hours ago.”

Hours ago? Jeno looked at the digital clock in his car and realised with a bit of a shock that it was 8:30. “Christ. I slept for ages, didn’t I?”

Renjun giggled. “Sleeping Beauty. I felt bad waking you up.”

Jeno ignored the little twinge in his stomach. _Beauty?_ “How come you even needed to? Can’t you drive yourself home?”

“No way, I’m shit at driving. I’d probably end up wrecking half the neighbourhood. My brother Sicheng normally gives me a lift but he bailed on me tonight. Says he’s going to a house party or something.”

“Party? Who the hell has parties on a Monday?" 

“Search me. His friends are odd. Anyway, I need a lift. Fancy a new career as a taxi driver?”

“Hell yeah.” Jeno wasn’t being sarcastic. Something inside him felt genuinely excited at the prospect of spending time driving Renjun about, spending time with him somewhere that didn’t smell like grease. He smiled at the other boy. “Where do you even live, though?”

They compared addresses and were surprised to find that Renjun’s house was on Jeno’s way home. Walking distance from each other, even.

They set off, Renjun instantly commandeering the aux cord and playing some Chinese music Jeno had never heard, but he had to admit was pretty good. 

“Lay? You’ve never heard of Lay?” Renjun sounded insulted.

“Nope. This isn’t the kind of stuff I usually listen to. I like it, though. But I usually listen to a load of other bands… The Cure… Elbow, you know Elbow?” 

“Elbow? Like, the body part.”

“Yeah! They’re incredible. I’m gonna have to show them to you. I need to spread the word." 

“I’d like that.”

Stopped at a red light, Jeno took his eyes off the road to see Renjun smiling gently at him, illuminated dimly in the artificial street lights. He felt warm inside to see Renjun’s genuine enthusiasm.

“That’s a deal, then?”

“Deal.”

They drove along a little longer in comfortable quiet, listening to the music, and then out of the blue something else happened. Renjun started to sing.

His voice gave Jeno goosebumps. It was truly beautiful; it was honey, it was summer, it was warmth. He hit each note perfectly, singing along in Mandarin – fluent, he’d told Jeno earlier as they chatted – and Jeno started to lose himself. He already liked Renjun’s voice when he was just talking, soft and gentle (often unlike his words), but this was something else. He found himself smiling a little, relaxing, just basking in his angelic tones.

It was the sort of voice that made your breath tighten and lift in your chest, and made you feel like you'd found home.

The song ended, and Jeno found himself resenting the sudden silence in the car. He wanted Renjun to keep singing. He wanted to listen to that voice forever.

Yet Renjun had paused the music between songs, seeming somehow a little embarrassed. “Hey, sorry about that,” he murmured, sheepishly. “I sort of forgot where I was for a second.”

“It’s okay! It’s okay. Please, don’t apologise. That was beautiful. Really beautiful. God, you can sing.”

“Really? You’re not just saying that, are you?” Renjun’s voice was softer. Another red light, and Jeno looked over to him once more.

Maybe it was the ruby glow of the traffic light; more likely it was just Jeno’s imagination. But it looked to him, just for a second, just before he had to turn away, that Renjun’s cheeks were dusted blush pink.

Jeno smiled to himself. “Of course not. You sound like an angel. Or a mermaid, or something.”

And Renjun laughed loudly, and just like that the delicate moment was over. “Mermaid? Don’t you mean siren, you mug?”

“Siren, mermaid, they’re the same thing. They have tails and shit.”

“No, dude. Don’t you know anything about mythology? Sirens are the ones who sing…”

They bickered amicably back and forth like that until Jeno pulled up outside Renjun’s house. “This is it, right?”

“It is.” Again, maybe this was Jeno’s wishful thinking at play, but the blond boy seemed a little hesitant to get out of the car. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Yep. And Wednesday. And Thursday. You can’t get rid of me.”

“Maybe I don’t want to.” Renjun flashed him a grin – bright, genuine, (perhaps he could even describe it as beautiful) – and unbuckled his seatbelt before opening the door and hurrying out through the rain towards his front doorstep. Jeno waited as he fumbled with his keys in his pocket, before something seemed to occur to him, and he ran back to Jeno’s car, opening the door. 

“Wait. I guess I should get your number. Now we’re colleagues and all that. Plus, I might need lifts and stuff.”

His heart lifting, Jeno opened up contacts in his phone and let Renjun input his number. “So I _am_ your taxi driver now.”

“I like you. You let me have the aux cord. Sicheng just plays death metal. It gets pretty tiring at seven in the morning.”

Jeno laughed and took back his phone. “I’ll text you this evening, so you get my number.”

“That sounds perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Renjun repeated. He shut the door again, heading back to his own doorstep and dripping water on the mat as he opened the door. Turning, he waved to Jeno, before disappearing behind the closed door.

As Jeno pulled up the handbrake, putting his car into gear and moving off, a couple of thoughts ran through his head. The one that stuck with him, though, was that maybe the prospect of work tomorrow didn't strike so much dread into his heart after all.

 

***

 

 

**27/06/2018 23:09**

**Unknown Number**  

 _hey renjun! this is jeno_

_from work_

**27/06/2018 23:11**

**renjun!!!**  

_oh! gotcha_

_not that i know any other jenos haha_

 

**27/06/2018 23:11**

**jeno**  

_i’m pretty unique!_

**27/06/2018 23:12**

**renjun!!!**

_that you are_

**27/06/2018 23:13**

**jeno**

  _gonna take that as a compliment lol_  

**27/06/2018 23:13**

**renjun!!!**  

_whatever floats ur boat xx_

_sleep well sleeping beauty!_

**27/06/2018 23:14**

**jeno**  

_you too ariel_

Jeno knew the kisses were ironic, but something made him smile at his phone as he sat in bed reading his all too short conversation with Renjun. _Sleeping beauty._ What kind of a nickname was that? If Renjun wanted to call him that, he’d have to live with Ariel.

An hour or so and a lively FaceTime with Jaemin later, he put down his phone and decided to get some rest. Slipping quickly into sleep as he curled up under his duvet, he dreamt vaguely of blond hair and a slightly snaggle-toothed smile, structureless dreams that slipped from his mind like water from his fingers the minute he woke.

Two roads down, a blond-haired boy dreamt in his own bed, faint images in his own mind of sandy brown hair and a wide eye smile that vanished in the same manner when morning came.

**Author's Note:**

> the elbow thing is entirely self-indulgent seeing that they're my favourite band in the entire world teehee
> 
> i'll try and update at least once a week !
> 
> hit me up on twitter @ultrjs


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